THE AMERICAS: Good Customers

Latin America, currently buying from
the U.S. at a $3.1 billion-a-year clip, is paying for its purchases
with exemplary promptness. Last week the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York reported that in March the current draft indebtedness of Latin
importers of U.S. goods fell to a nominal $99.9 million. In the seven
years that the bank has kept records, that figure was matched only once
before: in the Korean war month of September 1950. It was the eleventh
successive monthly decline in such commercial arrears, which now amount
to about a third of the total outstanding a year ago....